New Executive Order on HBCUs Establishes Initiative to ‘Promote Excellence And Innovation’

Quick Hits

• On April 23, President Trump issued a new EO designed to “elevate the value and impact of our nation’s HBCUs as beacons of educational excellence and economic opportunity that serve as some of the best cultivators of tomorrow’s leaders in business, government, academia, and the military.”
• The EO establishes an initiative—“the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities”—“housed in the Executive Office of the President and led by an Executive Director designated by the President.”
• There are approximately one hundred HBCUs in the United States. Although HBCUs were originally founded to educate Black students, they now enroll students who are not Black.

The executive order establishes the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities under the executive office of the president, to be led by an executive director designated by the president. The executive order outlines two primary missions for the initiative: (1) increasing the private-sector role, including the role of private foundations, in strengthening and further supporting HBCUs; and (2) enhancing HBCUs’ capabilities to serve the country’s young adults. Specifically, the executive order calls for increasing the private-sector role in:

• assisting HBCUs with “institutional planning and development, fiscal stability, and financial management”;
• “upgrading institutional infrastructure, including the use of technology”; and
• “providing professional development opportunities for HBCU students to help build America’s workforce in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and other high-growth industries.”

In addition, the executive order calls for enhancing HBCUs’ capabilities to serve the country’s young adults by:

• “fostering private-sector initiatives and public-private and philanthropic partnerships to promote centers of academic research and program excellence at HBCUs”;
• “partnering with private entities and [K-12] education stakeholders to build a pipeline of students that may be interested in attending HBCUs”;
• “addressing efforts to promote student success and retention at HBCUs, including college affordability, degree attainment, campus modernization, and infrastructure improvements.”

The executive order establishes, within the U.S. Department of Education, a board, referred to as “the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” The board is to be comprised of current HBCU presidents and representatives in philanthropy, education, business, finance, entrepreneurship, innovation, and private foundations. The board is tasked with advising the president on matters pertaining to the HBCU PARTNERS Act, which became law in 2020.

Furthermore, the initiative will organize an annual White House summit on HBCUs “to discuss matters related to the [i]nitiative’s missions and functions.”

While the executive order does not specifically identify or otherwise promise funding for the initiative, the White House also released a fact sheet that references HBCU-related funding secured during President Trump’s first term.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance and Higher Education blogs as new information becomes available. This article and more information on how the Trump administration’s actions impact employers can be found on Ogletree Deakins’ New Administration Resource Hub.

Amanda T. Quan is a shareholder in Ogletree Deakins’ Cleveland office.

This article was co-authored by Leah J. Shepherd, who is a writer in Ogletree Deakins’ Washington, D.C., office.

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